World Culture Forum: culture as a “driver, enabler and enricher of sustainable development”
The first World Culture Forum was held on the island of Bali, Indonesia, from 24 to 27 November 2013. With the support of UNESCO, the forum aims to become a strategic platform for defending the integration of culture in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
The four-day forum drew some one hundred key cultural stakeholders – political decision-makers, Ministers of Culture, experts, NGO's, Nobel Laureates and academics – for the purpose of defending the role of culture in sustainable development and safeguarding the cultural and linguistic diversity of humanity.

“Culture in all its manifestations [must] be championed as an indispensable agent of change and reconciliation in the face of unprecedented globalization,” stressed the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in his welcome message. Economics Nobel laureate and guest of honour, Amartya Sen, also emphasized the interdependencies between intercultural dialogue, peace and development in his opening speech: “Sustainable peace in the world demands that serious attention be paid to the value of such global cooperation, and sustainable development, in its turn, critically depends on the maintenance of peace, and on the use of human ability to talk and work together, rather than to threaten and fight.”
The Forum concluded with the adoption of the “Bali Promise” which calls for recognition of the role of culture as a “driver, enabler and enricher of sustainable development” and, therefore, its integration into the United Nations post-2015 Development Goals.
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